In this week’s VR news, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) announced that it is cutting the price of its Oculus Rift headset.
The social media giant’s push to become a leader in the virtual reality industry started with the acquisition of Oculus, but the product has not been as successful as many would have hoped. The company has responded by lowering the price of the Oculus Rift to $400 from $500.
This is the second time Facebook lowers the price of the headset as it previously sold for $600. The previous price cut also reduced the price of the device’s motion controllers from $200 to $100.
The price is quite good for the Facebook-owned product as other major virtual reality headsets retail for more, including the $800 HTC Vive, as well as the PlayStation VR, which goes for $400, but it will cost you an extra $60 if you want the motion controllers and a sensor camera (which you need to game).
Facebook has not released figures regarding the sales of its VR headset, but the expected sales number in 2016 is 243,000, according to Superdata.
Oculus vice president of content Jason Rubin noted that the company is still figuring out what price works for consumers, and the March price cut proved that customers are not willing to break the bank for a VR device.
FB stock surged 1.4% Monday.
